Board: Veterans' duplexes must meet design standards

A city of Amarillo board certified Thursday that Victory Duplexes intended to house homeless veterans will meet downtown urban design standards, with some allowed variances.

The certification granted Thursday by the Amarillo Downtown Urban Design Standards Review Board will clear the way for Another Chance House to obtain a city building permit to erect a cluster of seven duplexes at the corner of South Van Buren Street and Southwest Second Avenue.

Another Chance House, a nonprofit that helps men from homelessness to self-sufficiency, intends to build seven duplexes for veterans, whether they are involved in the charity’s substance-abuse recovery programs or just down on their luck, Executive Director Sandy Fenberg said.

Fenberg estimated the organization has raised $305,000 to pay for the first phase of three duplexes, plus $24,000 for a common parking lot onsite. Fenberg said original estimates were that the duplexes would cost $129,000 each to build, but she has been able to reduce costs through in-kind donations, grants and other contributions.

Another Chance House conducted a groundbreaking ceremony in January for Victory Duplexes, which will be on land near the nonprofit’s other facilities. Since then, an existing structure on the tract has been razed and preliminary site work is ongoing. City regulations allow some initial sitework to occur before the issuance of a building permit, city Planning Director Kelley Shaw said.

The review board convened Thursday to go over how the construction specifications mesh with design standards the city adopted in 2010 for downtown new construction and renovation projects.

The controversial ordinance, backed overwhelmingly in a recall effort last spring, creates additional requirements for exterior features of new buildings or exterior changes to existing property. The ordinance sets standards for such things as sidewalks and pedestrian lighting but does not mandate aspects like paint color.

“We enjoy being downtown,” Fenberg said. “I love all the requirements because that’s what I’ve been working on — getting the neighborhood cleaned up — for years.”

Although the project would be on property zoned for commercial uses, city Planning Director Kelley Shaw recommended the board view it as residential in nature and grant a variance from commercial standards.

Requirements for residential properties downtown are different. For example, a 4-foot-wide sidewalk can be used, rather than the 7-foot-wide walkways that commercial properties must have, Shaw said. Lighting requirements also are less stringent.

“The design standards did not intend that every time a residential home was built they had to put up a pedestrian light,” he said.

Commercial standards also recommend buildings be built closer to the street edge, rather than properties have the front-yard setbacks commonly found in residential neighborhoods, Shaw said.

Shaw recommended the board consider granting variances to forego the pedestrian lights and the wider sidewalks generally found in commercial areas and to allow the front yards proposed for the duplexes.

The board voted 6-0 to certify the project with those variances.

A planning staff report for the board shows the duplexes will be finished with gabled roofs, large windows in front and a combination of brick and vinyl siding. They will be set back from the street with 30-foot-deep front yards.

The site plan calls for 15 trees to be planted. The 19-space parking lot will be accessed only from a common alley. It will be surrounded on its other three sides by duplexes and common lawns, the report said.